It happened to be early in the morning. A thin mist floated above the surface of the water. The air was clear and fresh. Everything seemed so peaceful.
However, the sense of danger Li Qingshan experienced did not weaken at all. Instead, it grew stronger. The enemy must have used a method to conceal their figures and aura!
Li Qingshan made a prompt decision and stopped refining the river, erasing his aura completely before swimming upstream, changing his position. He was like a spirit turtle submerging into the sea abyss, completely vanishing without a trace. No matter how sensitive the enemy’s soul sense was, they would struggle to find him.
Afterwards, he used his six senses to search for the enemy. Sure enough, his sudden disappearance caused some confusion among the enemy. Although they still did not give off even a sliver of aura, their thought process wavered momentarily, which provided a direction for the spirit turtle’s senses.
The Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas, Foreboding Fate!
There are three enemies, and they’re people who I’ve associated with in the past. Yep, so it’s them. Sure enough, they couldn’t help themselves and have come to make trouble?
The corner of Li Qingshan’s lips curled into a smile, but his gaze was very solemn. The three people were Si Qing, E Dan, and Jia Zhen. They surrounded him from different directions.
Although they were only Golden Core cultivators, Li Qingshan dared not be careless. He did not forget how the Dark Queen had annihilated all the Golden Core cultivators back then on Burial Mound mountain.
To be able to stand out in the brutal selection of princes and rank eleventh, Si Qing was probably as powerful as the Dark Queen. Moreover, even Si Qing treated Jia Zhen and E Dan courteously, so their cultivations went without saying.
If the three of them struck together, it would definitely be devastating. They would not give up unless they reached their objective.
They’ve come for me, so I’ll play along and use the clone to probe them out! However, I need to wait for them to strike first and avoid the full brunt of the blow. The clone’s strength is still too weak after all. If I fail to recall the clone using the Watermirror’s Image and they kill it, I’ll lose the Water God Seal, and it won’t be worth it.
Si Qing constantly scanned the ground with his jackal-like eyes, but he was unable to find a single trace of Northmoon. He instead became even more excited and his lips curled into a smile. “This Northmoon really is as troublesome as the rumors have suggested!”
Aside from duels, the game he loved the most was hunting, but unfortunately, it was already very difficult for him to find suitable prey with his current strength, unless he underwent trials in the places of wilderness like the Mist province.
If there was no danger of being devoured by the prey, then hunting was merely boring slaughter. It would be completely pointless. Northmoon had reignited his passion. The craftier and more vicious the prey was, the more interesting the hunt would be.
Northmoon, I will definitely claim your head personally and treat it as my most prized collection!
Jia Zhen’s face sank. Ever since he had come to the Ruyi commandery, he had begun preparing for killing Northmoon, ranging from the innate abilities he used every battle and the speed limit of when he flapped his wings to his regular techniques when attacking and defending and an analysis of his disposition and so on…
Finally, he had come up with a perfect plan to hunt him down, but something had gone wrong right from the first step. He could not divine him, nor could he find his accurate location. Moon Court lake seemed to be his dwelling, but through his investigations, it was only a place a group of night roamers occupied. Many formations protected the area. It would be very difficult to achieve a surprise attack.
At their realm of cultivation, defeating an opponent was easy, but killing them was far too difficult. If they could not kill in a single strike, it would lead to endless trouble, such that they would be better off maintaining the current situation.
In the end, he used the great cauldron in the marquis’ estate and observed the real-time situation of the bodies of water being refined to find his location, yet his target seemed like he had sensed something, hiding away in the final moment.
“Old Jia, what do we do now?”
E Dan communicated to Jia Zhen from another side. The impression he had left in Li Qingshan and everyone else’s heart was that he was a brutal and restless person. Northmoon had a grievance of killing his disciples and stealing his woman from him. In particular, E Dan had personally nurtured E Feng, who even took on his surname. He was closer with him than an actual son. Such a great grievance was enough to drive a normal person crazy, such that they would do everything for revenge.
Right now, he actually behaved extraordinarily calmly. There was not a hint of restlessness in his eyes. His body was relaxed and at ease. His normal behaviour was merely an extremely good disguise. If anyone truly treated him as a brute, they would definitely pay a heavy price.
“Wait! Northmoon is rather arrogant. As long as we wait until he runs out of patience and comes out to provoke us first, we’ll strike together!”
“Alright!” Si Qing and E Dan nodded in agreement.
The sun rose up bit by bit. Unable to see one another, they fell into a silent stalemate, waiting for the other side to show an opening first. The sun rose to the zenith. The scorching sunlight scattered on the ground and water vapour rose up hazily.
Lolth woke up from her slumber and saw Northmoon sitting beside her, gazing right ahead as if he was looking at some extremely distant place.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re awake! The new Marquis of Ruyi is currently targeting my clone with his two lackeys. I’m taking them on in a battle of patience!”
Li Qingshan casually pulled Lolth into his arms. His lust had already faded away, but it was still a very pleasant sensation.
Having been so tenderly embraced by him, Lolth found it very difficult to grow accustomed to. She sneered and said, “What? There’s times when you’re afraid too?”
Smack! Li Qingshan slapped her on her plump bottom mercilessly. “This isn’t called being afraid. This is called temporary forbearance. After all, didn’t I call you ma’am Spider Queen in the past and serve as your amusement? Yet now, I’ve turned the tables and become your man.”
“You won’t be able to stay complacent for long!” Lolth’s eyes were filled with viciousness, and her voice seemed to be dripping with venom, enough to strike fear into the hearts of everyone.
Li Qingshan smiled gently and muttered to himself, “The new Marquis of Ruyi is a prince from the Dragon province. Standing behind him is a whole group of Soul Nascence cultivators, and I’ve fallen out with the Daemon race crown prince of the Green province, Mo Yu, so the Dragon King of Ink Sea probably won’t support me. If I want to kill him, not only will I require the strength to defeat him, but I also need to become unafraid of his background somehow.”
Lolth said maliciously, “If you can kill him, I’ll admit you’re my man!”
Li Qingshan laughed aloud and grabbed her by the chin. “It doesn’t matter whether you admit it or not. I just want your body anyway. I have no interest in your heart, so you better just keep it for yourself! Though, I have to say that I love it when you refuse to accept me, yet there’s also nothing you can do about it!” Afterwards, Lolth made the expression that he loved most again.
Time passed by slowly. Li Qingshan teased Lolth, so he did not feel bored. By wasting time with them using his clone, he was not afraid even if he lasted until the end of time. Suddenly, he came to a realisation. This was the way the spirit turtle fought!
Although it was holing up in his shell like a coward, no one could do anything to him, while he had a lengthy lifespan and could destroy all enemies through time.
The sun began to set in the west. Si Qing said, “Looks like he knows about our power and refuses to come out. E Dan said, “How about this? Why don’t we scare him? He’s right in this region anyway.”
Jia Zhen said, “Let’s retreat for now! We’ve already lost the optimal opportunity. If we take action right now, we’ll only alert him and scare him away. What do you think, your highness?”
“My imperial father has once told us that the most important property to hunting is not courage or intelligence, but patience.”
“As you say, your highness!”
The three of them then silently retreated as if they had never been here in the first place. However, they had wasted an entire day for nothing, so they could not help but feel rather vexed.
“You’ve come uninvited before leaving without bidding farewell. Just what has brought you here? You might as well tell me about it!”
Before the three of them could even travel far away, a voice rang out from afar. The bastard Northmoon flapped his wings and stared at them with his arms crossed, smiling.
Si Qing said, “I’ve long heard about your great name, Northmoon. Now that I’ve tried you, sure enough, you do live up to your reputation!” Jia Zhen and E Dan silently flanked around him again.
“Then I’d advise you to stop trying any further, just in case it leads to any misunderstandings, or do you insist on fighting until one of us dies?”
Li Qingshan flapped his wings and retreated to five kilometers away, maintaining his smile but raising his vigilance to the limit. He had already prepared the Watermirror’s Image, ready to recall his clone the moment they struck.
Jia Zhen’s heart skipped a beat. In the information he had collected, Northmoon possessed this special characteristic, which was that he rarely went out of his way to make trouble. He did not have much hostility towards humans either, devoting all of his focus to cultivation. Only when people came to stop him and deal with him would he strike valiantly and kill them all.
He had played a decisive role in ending the chess game that was the Clear River prefecture. Otherwise, with his actual strength, even uprooting the Academy of the Hundred Schools and the various sects would not be difficult. However, he was able to bide his time again and again, even sparing the people of the academy and letting them leave peacefully at Bronze Cauldron mountain. Beneath his arrogant and flagrant appearance, he was rather prudent and knew when to advance or retreat.
This was his virtue, but not something they could not use!
“We’ve come today because we want you as a friend.”
“Heh, the way you humans make friends sure is special!” Li Qingshan mocked.
“We were just confirming whether you had the right or not. If you didn’t live up to your reputation, then you would have deserved it even if you were killed off. The strong never makes friends with the weak,” Si Qing said indifferently, vaguely understanding Jia Zhen’s intentions. By saying that, it did not go against his identity, and it made perfect sense. It was convincing.
“That is true, but don’t the Human race and the Daemon race oppose one another?”
Jia Zhen said, “That’s not the case. When the founding emperor conquered the world, he had also borrowed the strength of the Ten Daemon Kings. Doesn’t the White Hawk commander of the Ruyi commandery, Gu Yanying, possess the bloodline of daemons? Clearly, whether we’re friend or foe has nothing to do with our race. Instead, it has to do with our mutual interests. If interests collided, then let alone clansmen, even brothers connected by blood are willing to go to war with one another. You should have experienced this already, sir.”
Li Qingshan smiled. “That makes even more sense. Though, I’d like to ask where exactly is our mutual benefit? Surely we can’t request each other to go against our interests?”
Jia Zhen said, “With how intelligent you are, sir, can you really be fooled by the likes of us? Our mutual interests must be found together. Peaceful coexistence surpasses risking life-threatening danger and going for each other’s throats, doesn’t it?”
“That’s fantastic! That’s exactly what I was thinking too!” Li Qingshan laughed aloud.
